[Great Ming] + [When in doubt, close your eyes and summon help] + [The Shu Han dream team overwhelms everyone] + [Play the pig to eat the tiger]
This book is also known as The Little Wanli Daydreams, and the Ming Cabinet Goes Mad and Adou: Zhang Juzheng, Will You Be My Prime Minister Father?
Nine-year-old Little Wanli comes down with a high fever. When he wakes, his mind has been replaced by that of Liu Shan, the later ruler of Shu Han.
Faced with the overbearing Grand Secretary Gao Gong, who is trying to force his way into the palace, and Empress Dowager Li, sternly wielding a ruler, Adou cannot even recite the Great Learning in full. He simply shuts his eyes and pretends to be “scared stiff.”
The assembled officials shake their heads. “The Great Ming is doomed. The little emperor’s a fool!”
But no one knows that whenever Adou closes his eyes, an entire hall of Shu Han heroes appears in his mind!
A powerful minister corners him with questions at court? His prime minister father, Zhuge Liang, gives his feather fan a wave. “Do not panic, Your Majesty. Give him three words that cut to the heart and teach him his place as a subject!”
The northern frontier is provoked by the Tartars? His second uncle Guan Yu strokes his beard and sneers. “Give Qi Jiguang enough silver to buy a place on the battlefield, and send him out to kill like Huo Qubing!”
Domestic reforms meet resistance? Fa Zheng smiles darkly. “For those gentry who refuse to obey, I have a plan: execute the entire family.”
Liu Bei’s heroic spirit crosses time and space to pay his respects from afar to the phantom of the Great Ming’s founding emperor.
The officials soon discover, to their horror, that this seemingly mediocre little emperor governs with the wisdom of Zhuge Liang reborn and wages war with the ferocity of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei reborn!
As the Great Ming’s fortunes soar, a voice suddenly rings out in his mind: “Special revival conditions unlocked...” Adou opens his eyes and looks at the assembled officials.
“Sorry, but my prime minister father is about to come teach you all a lesson!”
The writing is so good. The description of subduing Zhang Juzheng is really touching. The lonely minister is passionate. I hope Zhang Shou will not be clumsy in his work for the country, and there will be no more discord between the monarch and his ministers...